SEATTLE -- Though more than 5,000 miles from the Italian court, Amanda Knox said she was "frightened and saddened" when the judges reinstated a guilty verdict against her and an ex-boyfriend in the 2007 slaying of a British roommate.

Knox had remained in Seattle during the trial. David Marriott, a family spokesman, said Knox awaited the ruling Thursday at her mother's home. After the decision was announced, a person believed to be Knox emerged from the house. That person, surrounded by others and covered by a coat, got into a vehicle and was driven away.

When asked how Knox was doing, her mother, Edda Mellas, said: "She's upset. How would you be?"

Knox said in a written statement that she was "frightened and saddened," she "expected better from the Italian justice system," and "this has gotten out of hand."

The University of Washington student was sentenced to 28 1/2 years in prison, raising the specter of a long legal battle over her extradition.

Knox, 26, said she and her family "have suffered greatly from this wrongful persecution."

The court reinstated a guilty verdict first handed down against Knox and Raffaele Sollecito in 2009. The verdict was overturned in 2011, but Italy's supreme court vacated that decision and sent the case back for a third trial in Florence.

In her statement, Knox acknowledged the family of Meredith Kercher, her roommate in Italy.

"First and foremost it must be recognized that there is no consolation for the Kercher family. Their grief over Meredith's terrible murder will follow them forever. They deserve respect and support," she said.

Knox implored officials in Italy to fix problems with the justice system, and she blamed overzealous prosecutors and a "prejudiced and narrow-minded investigation" for what she called a perversion of justice and wrongful conviction.

In Italy, police on Friday found Sollecito near Italy's border with Slovenia and Austria hours after the verdict.

Sollecito's lawyer, Luca Maori, said his client was in the area of Italy's northeastern border because that's where his current girlfriend lives, and that he went voluntarily to police.

However, the cabinet chief of the Udine police station, Giovanni Belmonte, said police showed up at about 1 a.m. Friday at a hotel in Venzone, a tiny town of 2,200 about 40 kilometers from the border, where Sollecito and the girlfriend were staying.

They brought him to the Udine police station, took his passport and put a stamp in his Italian identity papers showing that he cannot leave the country, as mandated by the appeals court in Florence.

Since the court didn't order Sollecito detained, he will be freed as soon as the paperwork is completed, Belmonte said. He said Sollecito was calm and came willingly to the station, with his girlfriend driving behind.

Asked if police thought he might have planned to flee the country, Belmonte said: "We don't know his intentions." But he said police were tipped off to his presence in the hotel and came immediately.

In Italy, adults checking into hotels must hand over ID upon check-in. Hotels are then required to communicate the information to local police.